Seven Good Reasons We Shouldn’t Take This Trip

1. The American economy is tanking, and it’s a deep, deep pool. Where people gladly took dollars, they now sneer at our greenbacks and demand local currency or Euros. Everything is more expensive than it was just a year ago.

2. America isn’t winning the World’s Most Popular Country competition. In fact, we were eliminated in the first round, not even getting a chance to show off our star-spangled bikini. People dislike and distrust America. We’re going to have to constantly defend our country, or at least listen to a lot of criticism.

3. Jeff’s just finishing his PhD in Neuroscience and the traditional next step is to move directly into a post-doc. Some labs might not look kindly on him being away from the science world for a year. Not all science nerds understand that there is life beyond the lab.

4. I have a permanent federal job. To a lot of people in DC, this is equivalent to winning the lottery. It’s practically impossible to fire me, and if I stay in my job, at age 50, I’ll have put in enough years to get a full federal pension. And these days pensions are as rare as flying pigs.

5. I’m about to get some good projects at work andI’m up for a promotion, which I’m likely to get. Considering I haven’t so much as gotten a free cupcake at my work, this is the big time.

6. The airline industry is in shambles. We could be dealing with a lot of hassles as airlines go under, merge, and lose baggage at an even more astounding rate than normal.

7. Moving is a pain. The boxes, the deciding what to keep and what to get rid of, the driving of a monstrous truck 500 miles, the bribing people with pizza to help you carry your couch, the discovery of God only knows what under furniture you haven’t cleaned under in four years… We have a good apartment and good friends, and we’re perfectly content not knowing what lies between the counter and the stove. Staying put would be much, much easier.

But still, there’s one good reason—a reason that trumps all reasons—why we should take this trip:

Nothing but this moment is guaranteed.

We are not promised tomorrow. We are not promised five years from now. We are not promised eighty years. Hopefully we make it to all of those milestones, but I’m not going to wait and see. Instead, I’m going to live for today.

And if I do make it to 50, 65, 80, 100, then I’ll have a darn good time sitting on my front porch talking about all the adventures I had rather than dwelling on all the things I wish I had done. Unless I’m still out having adventures, which is, of course, the plan.

9 Replies to “Seven Good Reasons We Shouldn’t Take This Trip”

If I were you, my biggest concern would be finding a country I really like so I’d have somewhere to hang out/move permanently once this mortgage crisis wrecks havoc (Greg know what word works better there) on the American economy.

Just to be clear, we’re not having any doubts about leaving. This is just a list of reasons we could use to justify not going or issues that other people have brought up as to why now might not be the best time. The truth is no time is a good time and every time is a good time. It all depends on your perspective.